The Virtual Frontier
The virtual winds of change are blowing, and its time to re-activate, refresh, and re-invent many of the various efforts associated with this blog, Architecture Islands, the in-world RL Architects group, and more. In the days ahead, I plan to introduce a more consolidated blend of these elements under one name, ‘The ARCH Network.’ We will be hosting a discussion on Architecture Island on Thursday, April 16th at 9am SLT (PDT). The meeting will be held at THIS SLURL.
The Group: Since its inception, the reach of the ‘RL Architects in Second Life‘ group was a poorly chosen name. It has never been exclusively about ‘RL Architects’ (what exactly is a RL architect anyway?). Further still, a growing percentage of the group’s members are actively exploring architecture in other virtual world platform beyond Second Life. That said, the name has never accurately reflected the group’s composition or intended goal of bringing people together, and there are too many exciting things happening in this field to have that lack of focus. Its time to turn the page. This week, I’ll be purging the RL Architects in Second Life group, and asking everyone to join a group with a name that more fully encompasses the work we do, called simply Architecture in Virtual Worlds. This name, however simplistic, more fully recognizes the diversity of the group’s collective interest, and is much more inviting to anyone exploring architecture in various locations throughout the metaverse.
The LAND: Most people who are aware of this blog are not aware of Architecture Islands, or the the architecture sandboxes or the in-world group, and vice-versa. This is a missed opportunity, given that all of the energy we put into evangelizing the use of virtual worlds is not tied to a clearly defined means of rolling up your sleeves and getting started. I think we need to establish a much stronger connection between the web-based presence and the actual in-world activity. The ARCH Network will have a stronger emphasis on the land rental/purchase side of things, and will also be more diversified in offering virtual land of all shapes, sizes, and platforms. Land policies and prices will also be changing soon, and I will post news on that when the time comes.
The Blog: wordpress.com is great, but its time for this to be hosted on its own domain. Also, the blog itself is only one tile in the mosaic. Viewed alone, it is impossible to see the full picture we’re trying to convey. Writing text about virtual worlds is like using a watercolor painting to describe what a pencil sketch is. To address this disconnect, and to provide additional tools and resources for readers to use, this blog will now be nested within a larger body of virtual world context, and become a place where someone who has never heard of a ‘virtual world’ can gather all of the information they need to get started. The new domain will be https://archvirtual.com and I urge you to add this subscription to your feeds.
The ARCH Forum: It is incredibly difficult for any one person to keep track of all of the work and exciting new trends happening throughout the metaverse. We need to be a way for people to share their observations, ideas, projects, etc. Instead of sending people off to the Ning site I tried out a while ago, I have instead included an ‘Arch Forum’ within these pages. Maybe it will get used, maybe it won’t, its hard to tell with Forums. But its there if you need it. It is the simplest way I can think of to make this site as ‘writable’ as it is ‘readable’ and I hope you will consider using it as a resource and communication tool. You can find that forum here: https://archvirtual.com/archforum/
I sincerely hope these updates will help the ARCH become a stronger, more focused and holistic resource. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to IM Keystone Bouchard in SL or email me at info@archvirtual.com
See you in-world!
